Fig. 3: Chia is more efficient than corn, alfalfa, and soy for all water use categories except transpiration-only water use efficiency.
From: Satellite observations indicate that chia uses less water than other crops in warm climates
Corn and alfalfa’s transpiration and all crops’ evapotranspiration were favorable for chia within the parameter’s standard error range. The data shown are averages across all fields analyzed for chia (n = 40), alfalfa (n = 130), corn (n = 892), and soybean (n = 815). Error bars signify the standard error. Evapotranspiration and transpiration represent a ratio of crop to chia, where values greater than 1 signify less water used by chia. Water use efficiency and transpiration-only water use efficiency represent chia-to-crop ratios where values greater than one indicate that chia sequesters more carbon per quantity of water.
